How To Close The Single Leg Appointment In The House?
When you’re trying to sell to a couple, the sales process tends to get pretty standard. However, dealing with just one half of a couple can be a tricky task. It’s difficult to close at a single leg appointment, but it’s not impossible. Sam Wakefield teaches you how to make the most of these notoriously uncertain situations with gusto. Soon, you won’t even have to worry about single-leg appointments at all. Let Sam show you some of the best techniques to employ in order to make sure you close the sale because, after all, the logical conclusion to any well-executed sales process is a sale.
This topic is a ton of fun. I love to do this. How do you handle the one-leg appointment? Is it possible to close the one-legger in the house? I’m here to tell you absolutely, yes. I do it all the time. I’ve sold hundreds of systems like this and I’m here to tell you how. This is the situation where you show up to the appointment. Typically, it’s mid-day but it could be evening or weekend. One of the other partners is there, but not the second one. That’s what we always call the one-leg appointment or the single-legger. In order to make any sale, there are typically two decision-makers or one main decision-maker and you.
It’s like a three-legged stool. If only two of the legs are there, it’s going to fall over. You can’t sit on a two-legged stool. What do you do? How does this work? One, through the conversation you’re finding out because your process is the same. Obviously, there’s a quick disqualification. There’s a whole school of thought out there that you find out right at the very beginning if they’re the decision-makers or not. Some people will instantly reset the appointment. You’ll find out if they’re the only decision-maker. Some of the common questions you hear in sales programs for heating and air or basically anything are, “Is there anyone else interested in the results of our evaluation?”
They turn the pressure on and I don’t believe in this. There are a million ways to do it without doing that. They’ll turn the pressure on and they’ll say something like, “Would it be more convenient for you if I came back when you’re both available?” No, it wouldn’t. You’re there right now. They blocked off hours of their day for your appointment. Don’t be a jerk. Don’t be a douchebag and reschedule the appointment right then. That’s not how we like to do it. There are many better ways. This is the recon mission, the intelligence mission, the fact-finding mission. I guarantee you, when you ask the questions to one of the other partners if it’s the spouse or whatever it is when the other person is not there, the answers that you will get are different than the answers that you would get when they’re both there. The answers they give in front of the other person will be different.
Sales Process
However, once you have those answers, then it’s almost like they line up with you and you’re side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder with the ammunition firing at the other person. They don’t hardly stand a chance but to say yes once you’ve gone through the process properly with the person who’s there. I absolutely love this process because it’s super powerful. What do you do? How does this work? Raise your hand and say, “Sam, what the heck are you talking about? Let’s get to it.” The visit is the same. You go in, you do exactly as you would. You do your introduction. You get their confidence and set the credibility pieces about your company. You get their confidence up and you set the credibility pieces about you.
It’s exactly the same. They’re getting used to you in their space, especially many people in our industry, we’ve got male salespeople. The situation I’m talking about a lot of times is the housewife, the female person who’s there. You have to overcome that initial level of guard being up, the uncomfortableness. You’ve got to give them time. It could be any other way around too. Huge hats off to all of my female project managers out there. You guys are awesome. You’re crushing it. I love it. We need more women salespeople in this industry because you absolutely rule the world. Getting into the situation, you’re giving people time to get used to it. You show that you’re not a threat. It’s not going to be weird. This is just a professional conversation, but you’ve taken control of the conversation. You’re running the process like you know to do. You’ve done those two introductions. You’ve set those credibility pieces. You move into the questionnaire as normal, but here’s where there’s some magic that happens.
If you’re like me, and I’ve experienced this thousands of times literally, when you’re in that type of situation, the person has more time. When there’s one person versus two, there’s typically more time to answer the questions because one person is talking versus two. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I’m able to go a lot more in-depth into the questions on the questionnaire. I ask the deeper layered questions and follow up with when you ask the questions about room temperatures, allergies, asthma, noise level of the equipment, all those things. Follow them up with, “How so? Tell me more about that. What’s that like?”
Those uncovering questions to get them to talk about their hot buttons, their concerns, their big issues. Every bit of this is your ammunition when it comes to the end or when it comes to the close. We’re going to absolutely close it in the house. I’ve done this many times. You go through this process. The reason that this is important is you’ve done that, you’ve investigated, then you’ve come back around and you’ve shown them what’s causing their problems. What are we going to do to fix it? You’ve dove into the emotional side of, “Imagine what it’s going to be like when you’re not having to experience that allergy issue anymore. When little Johnny’s room in the corner of the house, he doesn’t have to sleep with that unsafe space heater in his room. It’s going to be the same temperature as the rest of the house. He’s going to not wake up with a bloody nose from the low humidity because we’re going to humidify the house.” Whatever it is and you’ve covered that, then it comes time for the close.
Call On A Three-Way
You’ve gone over the different levels of equipment and all of the stuff. At this point, it’s not about the equipment. It’s about everything else. It’s about having the temperature even. It’s about all of the things. You’ve got to compare everything, go over it all with them. “Is it possible to get them on the phone right now?” You ask, “Could we three-way them in and put them on speaker? I can go over all this with them.” That way, it’s more efficient. It saves you guys time. I will tell you that many times if it’s the man or the woman or whatever, they’ll say, “No problem. I would love that. That would be great.” That way, I can answer all of your questions together and it’s more efficient. That way you don’t have to take a ton of time out of your schedules at the other time and it works great this way. When they’re willing to call the other person up or sometimes they’re like, “Before you get to the numbers, let me call them anyway because they knew you were coming.” He or she was going to be ready for me to call them so we could go over this anyway. Ask and do not be scared to say, “Let’s call them up and put them on speaker.”
Single Leg Appointments: It is your mission as a sales professional to build your stack of value so tall that by the time you get to your pricing, they can only hope to work with you.
When that happens, you get them on the speaker and do a quick recap. Basically, what’s going to go on when you’ve spent so much time talking about how we’re going to solve the problems in the house that that person we’ve been interacting with and building a relationship with is concerned about. We get on the speakerphone and scenario number one, which happens most of the time, the person there says to the other person, and it’s usually her to him. She says, “I love this project.” They’re going to tell him, “I don’t care what system we go with, but we absolutely have to do this air purifier thing they’re talking about. We’ve got to fix the temperature. They’re going to fix the temperatures in the room. They’re going to do this. They’re going to do that. I don’t care what system you pick, but we have to do this other stuff.”
Do you get an impression of the power of that? Now they’re your advocate with the partner. The partner doesn’t have a choice now but to go with your company. She’s already included all of the system enhancements, these accessories, the IQ, the additional ductwork, the humidifier, and the dehumidifier. She’s already included it in the package. It’s not an optional thing now because when she tells the partner, “I don’t care what system you pick, but they’re going to fix this and they’re going to fix that. We have to do this part of it,” there’s so much power there. It’s a done deal. The rest is figuring out the details. The partner says, “What do we get?” Before you call them, be prepared and give a quick nutshell of the different systems that are available and tell them, “I’ve already got this other stuff that your wife or your partner mentioned. Here are the details of the different equipment.” Be prepared with all of the prices bundled together with the system for a total. Be prepared with your cash discount. Be prepared what your financing options are. You say, “It’s going to be this much a month. Which one works best for you? We’ve got Tuesday or Thursday available.”
Rescheduling The Second Visit
The person there is already decided and it’s powerful. I’ve sold dozens and dozens of systems this way because now the rest is figuring out their schedule and how they’re going to pay for it. They’ve already decided they’re going with you. They called you because they needed something anyway. Because you are a professional and you deep dive into their issues and solve their actual concerns, those are the emotional drivers that cause people to take action immediately. Remember, logic is the steering wheel, and emotion is the gas pedal. That is how you can close the deal in the house with a single leg. Call on a three-way and throw it on speaker. Are there sometimes when that’s not available? That doesn’t happen? Yes, of course, there are. That’s when you don’t present pricing. You say, “Miss Homeowner, Mr. Homeowner, this is a whole lot of information to remember. Would it be easier for you if I came back tonight maybe after dinner and go over all the details with your partner? When would be a good time when you all can both be together when we can get this knocked down?”
If you go over all the details to answer your questions, I could compile everything and put it together in a nice presentation with pricing for you. It’s easy to break out. It’s an easy method there. “When would be the time?” “I don’t know. I’m not sure what their schedule is like.” “Can you text them and find out or call them quick? We don’t have to spend any time on the phone but find out and then we can reschedule that.” That’s the time to reschedule that second visit, the go back. That’s when you go back. You’re going to recap everything. When you’re recapping, ask permission. Say, “I know we went all over all this before, but would you mind if I recapped for your partner here?” Go back over the exact same intro, setting the confidence for the company, the confidence for you, and setting those credibility pieces for you in the company, and then going through with them.
You say, “Here are the questions that I went over with your partner. She or he mentioned that this room was hot. It was dusty over here. We’ve got this allergy issue and we’ve got high bills.” Whatever it is, recap it all and ask their opinion of all those things. When you have them together, ask the all-important question. “Did you guys have any concerns besides what we’ve already talked about that you would like me to know about?” That last question is going to tie them together and put them psychologically on the same team with you now to make this decision together. It’s powerful psychological things here because now that ties them together and everybody is unified at this point.
“If you don’t have any other questions or no other concerns, I’ve put together a presentation to show you the pricing. Would you mind if I show that to you now?” You’re still going to go through the same process and go over all of the different levels of equipment again, just like you did with the one person. A lot of times what I’ll do is I’ll say, “I know you’ve heard all this before, but it’s important for you both to get the full explanation. That way, you can make a good educated decision together.” What happens is you end up going over the whole process and the whole presentation almost again. You can abbreviate some aspects of it. You can nutshell some things. If at any moment you miss some of the highlights and some of the key value points that your company does they get with working with you because there’s a lot of benefit to working with you directly versus working with somebody else. They get you as their resource.
Concluding With The Sale
Going over all that, if you miss it or gloss over those value items when it comes time to show the price, your stack of value is not bigger than their stack of dollars. That is the whole goal in the sales process. The logical conclusion to a well-executed sales process and presentation is a sale. That is the logical conclusion. You don’t go to a restaurant and order a meal and have fantastic service and not expect to pay the bill. It’s the same thing. We’ve got that well-executed sales presentation and process of showing them all their options, then you show the pricing. That’s the reason for taking the time to go through all of the steps that we do. That is the reason for the psychology. That’s the reason for doing things in the order that we do them.
It is your job. It is your mission as a sales professional to build your stack of value so tall that by the time you get to your pricing, their only thought is, “We can just hope and pray we can afford this person. We hope we can afford this company.” When that happens and you actually show your pricing, it’s almost always less than they expected, which is fantastic. When you go any further and say, “We can do this fantastic financing,” or “Here’s how we can handle this. You’re going to realize part of this in the savings. You can’t imagine what life is going to be like. Let’s go ahead and get on the calendar.” Once you do that, that is when everything will change for you because it’s that whole process. Don’t be scared of the process. Don’t be scared of the system. It works and it’s powerful. It works in the right order. The coolest part with this is if you do it over the phone. That’s my favorite way to do it, over the three-way call, when you wrap it up right then and say, “No problem. We’ll get a signature here.”
Single Leg Appointments: Your goal as a salesperson is to not be emotionally connected to one specific sale, but to be emotionally connected to all the sales.
You’re like, “Let’s get a signature. Let’s get it on the board. Here are the details. The next steps are.” That’s my favorite close, “The next steps are.” It makes it so simple. It’s not a pressure. It’s not asking for this high pressure, “Will you trust me with this project?” I love that one too but, “The next steps are, let’s do this. Let’s go ahead and get a signature here and we’ll talk about how we want to pay for it.” It’s so simple. That’s my favorite. I love to do the close at the kitchen table on the first visit because we were able to get the partner on speakerphone and go through the process. It’s so powerful. Do not be scared to ask them, “Can we talk to them now? Call them up, let’s get him on speaker. That way we can go over everything together.” It’s great.
Every now and then, they’ll take out the speaker and they’ll walk into the other room. They’ll always come back and say, “We decided to go with system B, system C, system D,” whichever system. It doesn’t matter what system they go with. At the end of the day, it’s a sale. They chose us. That’s it. We don’t need a single person. Never chase any one person. We need people. We don’t need a person. Your goal is to not be emotionally connected to one specific sale, but to be emotionally connected to all the sales. Go into every house expecting that you’re going to close it right then because your energy introduces you before you ever knock on the door.
If you don’t believe that, go anywhere into a crowd and watch people. You will feel the difference of people as they walk by. You have that vibe about somebody. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Have high energy. It doesn’t mean you have to be crazy. It doesn’t mean you have to be super outgoing necessarily, but having a high vibration, the high happiness. Those moments where you feel that nothing can stop you in the world and every single thing you attempt to do is get it to be a success. Those are the moments that you get on that roll and you keep closing deals. I went on a roll one summer and did twenty in a row. It was amazing. I loved it because I knew that every single person, every door I knocked on was going to close because that’s what people do.
It’s not about becoming a good salesperson. You have to right now decide, “I am a great salesperson.” When you decide that’s what you do, I close deals. That is what I do. It’s in my being. It’s what my core belief is. I close deals. I am a closer. You get the coffee. You don’t have to put the coffee down when you decide to be a closer. That’s my extra for this episode. I hope that was helpful. Shoot me a message if you got some value from this. Go to the website at CloseItNow.com and check out with that big news. We’ve got a YouTube channel coming. I’ll keep you posted with that and exciting things are happening in the future. Thank you for joining us. Remember, you are saving the world one heatstroke at a time, one frostbite at a time. Go out there and make a difference.
